A Woodridge man faces a prison sentence of around three years after pleading guilty Wednesday to scamming his former employer, a Cook County agency formed to promote the redevelopment of vacant properties.
Federal prosecutors charged Mustafaa Saleh in November with one count of wire fraud for the scheme involving the Cook County Land Bank Authority. The agency’s board is led by Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer.The charges against him landed more than a year after a federal grand jury subpoenaed the land bank in May 2021, seeking records on Saleh and two dozen properties the land bank obtained and sold in the city and suburbs.
But prosecutors said Saleh found bogus "straw buyers" to fraudulently purchase six properties from the authority on Saleh’s behalf between 2016 and 2021. The properties — in Chicago, Oak Lawn and Midlothian — were then redeveloped, resold or otherwise used for Saleh’s financial benefit, prosecutors said.
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